


Boldly Going

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Anomaly - Freeform, Cutter isn't always right, Drama, Established Relationship, Future Predators, Getting Together, M/M, Stephen is long-suffering, the night after
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 01:45:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6732979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cutter's first prediction for locating anomalies doesn't quite go according to plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boldly Going

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kristen_mara](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kristen_mara).



> Written as a Christmas present for the always delightful kristen_mara, who gave the prompt “a time when Nick isn't right, for once.”
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal in 2013.

Stephen fired his gun up in to the air and then ducked behind a burnt out car. He waited a few seconds and then hopped up to peer through one of the broken car windows and then sank down again. He motioned towards Becker to move out and started hurrying towards the anomaly. When he was done with this, Cutter was a dead man.

**Six Hours Earlier**

When Stephen came down to breakfast he found Cutter sat at the kitchen table, papers strewn all over it. And definitely no breakfast smells.

“What happened to breakfast in bed?” Stephen asked.

“Hmm?” Cutter responded, clearly paying no attention.

Stephen sighed and started making a Full English. Eventually Cutter looked up from his research long enough to realise that Stephen was cooking.

“You're making breakfast,” Cutter said.

“Nice of you to notice,” Stephen replied. “Two minutes and I'll be done.” He handed Cutter a mug of tea.

“I was going to do that.”

“Yeah, forty minutes ago,” Stephen said.

Cutter looked down guilty at the table. “Ah. I got a little distracted.”

“Hmm,” Stephen hummed. He wasn't sure why he was so annoyed, it was just Cutter being Cutter after all. He was used to waiting for him to finish up a thought, or chasing him from one madcap idea to the other. He supposed part of him had expected that once they'd started sleeping together, that Cutter might start paying a bit more attention to him. He was starting to feel a lot of sympathy for Helen, which was a disturbing thought he tried to bury as soon as it reared its head.

“I'll, um, clear the table,” Cutter said, doing just that as he spoke.

Stephen ignored him in favour of plating up and then laying the table behind Cutter as he cleared up. He sat down and began to eat as Cutter was putting his papers away in the living room.

Cutter sat opposite him and started to eat his own meal. “Thism, gudf,” he said around a mouthful. Stephen sighed.

“Thanks,” he said after a moment.

Cutter took a drink and then sat his cutlery down. “I'm not very good at this.” Stephen merely raised an incredulous eyebrow. “All right, I just...I wasn't expecting you to still be here when I woke up.” This last was said in a rush of words and it took Stephen a moment to understand what Cutter was saying.

“You thought I'd just, leave?” Stephen wasn't sure whether he should be insulted or not.

Cutter rubbed at the back of his neck. “I guess I can't be right about everything?”

Stephen found himself smiling despite himself. “It's a good thing I love you,” he said. Cutter looked vaguely astonished, so Stephen made a start on the washing up, smiling to himself all the while.

* * * * * *

Stephen didn't know what he was expecting when they were at the ARC, but even though they hadn't said anything, everyone seemed to know that he and Cutter had finally crossed into “they probably are but we can't prove it” to “about bloody time”. Stephen suspected the soldiers even had a book running, but Becker had a very good poker face, so he couldn't be entirely sure.

Lester did try and talk to him about fraternisation but one raised eyebrow was enough to curtail that conversation.

Abby and Connor treated him exactly the same, which he was grateful for, as he helped them feed the mammoth. He wasn't sure why he thought they might be funny about things, he supposed his previous misunderstanding with Abby was still playing on his mind.

He didn't see Cutter until lunch time, where they managed to sit at a table and eat a sandwich together, though Cutter was even more distracted than he had been that morning. Finally, Stephen had had enough.

“All right,” Stephen said, “just what exactly is going on?”

“What do you mean?” Cutter asked.

“What are you working on that's got you so – scatty?”

“Scatty?” Cutter asked, looking amused.

“You know what I mean,” Stephen said. “You're definitely preoccupied. And my ego isn't so large I think it was last night's fantastic sex that addled your brain.”

Cutter nearly choked on his sandwich and started to splutter embarrassedly.

“No, no, that wasn't a problem. Definitely not a problem.” He grinned at Stephen. Stephen grinned back.

“So, what was it then?”

“Just something I've been working on.” He stopped, but hastily started again at Stephen's severe expression. “A way of predicting the anomalies. I think I can find us an anomaly to the Carboniferous.”

Stephen rocked back on his chair, stunned. “Really?”

“Yes.” Cutter's tentative smile turned into an outright grin. “And I think we should go there. To test it out.”

“You do?” Stephen asked. He didn't know why it should surprise him really, Cutter tended to leap first and think later.

“I've scheduled a meeting with Lester.”

“You've scheduled a meeting?” Stephen parroted. “You really are serious about this, aren't you? All right, I'm in.”

“Of course you are,” Cutter said. Stephen sighed – naturally it had never occurred to Cutter that he wouldn’t be.

“It's a good thing I love you,” Stephen said. Cutter’s brow furrowed in confusion, but Stephen was already up and putting their rubbish in the bin, before he headed out to the armoury; he had the sudden urge to shoot something.

* * * * *

Cutter didn't get everything his own way. Lester approved the mission, but insisted that Ryan, Becker and Stephen went through first, just to be on the safe side. Cutter had vehemently protested that as it was his plan, and as he was sure that it would work, he should be going through first, but Lester had held his ground, and in the end only Stephen kissing him silent had ended the matter.

“I should keep you on retainer as a Cutter-wrangler,” was Lester's only comment, and that was that.

* * * * *

“Be careful,” Abby told Stephen as they stood in front of a clearing of trees in the Forest of Dean. They had five minutes to go to prove whether Cutter's prediction was correct or not and everyone was getting a little antsy.

“Don’t worry, I'm sure it'll be fine,” Stephen said.

“Of course it will,” Cutter said. “Look!”

They all looked towards where he was pointing. Before their very eyes the familiar shimmer of an anomaly appeared in front of them. Cutter's grin was blinding.

“He'll be insufferable after this,” Abby said.

“Already there,” Stephen replied with a smile.

Cutter seemed oblivious and headed straight over to have a word with Ryan. Stephen wasn't concerned, he knew the soldier wouldn't budge an inch.

After less than five minutes Cutter returned to where Stephen and Becker were getting prepared to go through the anomaly.

“Be careful,” Cutter said to Stephen's back, but he had gone to stand by Abby and Connor before Stephen could respond. He ignored the look Becker gave him and concentrated on checking his weapon.

* * * * *

A further ten minutes passed before Ryan gave the go ahead for them to go through. Connor was sat on the ground near their cars, laptop balanced on his legs as he took readings, Cutter breathing down his neck the whole time. Abby was keeping an eye on the surroundings, a tranq gun in her hands, just in case.

“Ready?” Ryan asked.

Stephen and Becker nodded and, with a quick glance back at the rest of the team, they headed through the anomaly.

Two things were immediately apparent. Firstly, it became abundantly clear that they had not stepped into the Carboniferous, rusting cars and abandoned looking tower blocks gave way to that idea, and secondly that wherever they were, the future predators were ruling the roost.

They started firing as soon as the predators made a move towards them and had no choice but to move away from the anomaly in order to draw the predators after themselves and not towards their team.

Ryan motioned for Stephen to cover him and then carried on drawing the predators away. Becker went to join him and then looped back towards their anomaly. A few seconds later Ryan appeared on the further side of what now appeared to be a car park, the predators eagerly tracking his movements.

Stephen fired his gun up in to the air and then ducked behind a burnt out car. He waited a few seconds and then hopped up to peer through one of the broken car windows and then sank down again. He motioned towards Becker to move out and started hurrying towards the anomaly. When he was done with this, Cutter was a dead man.

“Move, move, move!” Ryan shouted, and Stephen and Becker picked up the pace, launching themselves through the anomaly and rolling into a crouched position, guns pointed at the anomaly in case anything decided to follow them through. For once they were lucky, and nothing dashed past them.

The other side of the anomaly erupted into chaos, with Ryan's men settling into formation around the anomaly and Abby, Connor and Cutter, looking equal parts astonished and worried.

“What - “ Cutter began to ask.

“Not the bloody Carboniferous,” Stephen replied.

“Oh.” Cutter's face fell and Stephen resisted the urge to kiss him again. Adorably crestfallen though he might look.

“Are you all right?” Abby asked.

Stephen nodded and after a few minutes the anomaly closed, without incident.

“I think your theory needs a little work, Professor,” Ryan said. He rounded up his men and started issuing instructions for a base camp to be set up, in case the anomaly reopened.

Cutter slinked guilty over to Stephen, and carefully touched his arm. “Sorry,” he said. “I thought, I really thought...”

“It's all right,” Stephen said, because mostly it was. “Just, let's get Connor to build a robot we can send through first instead, yeah?”

Cutter smiled and leaned in a little closer. “All right.”

“I'm going to see if Ryan needs a hand.”

“Okay.” Cutter kept his hand on Stephen's arm for a beat and then released it. Stephen smiled softly at Cutter and started to move away, before Cutter grabbed at his arm again. “I love you too,” he said, in a rush of words.

“Of course you do,” Stephen said with a cheeky grin and a wiggle of his hips.

Truth was Stephen thought it was probably a good idea that Cutter had been wrong. Even given the adrenaline spike of finding themselves face to face with future predators, Stephen was all for Cutter learning a bit of humility.

Besides, he was counting on some fantastic apology sex. And was determined to get it.


End file.
